Sometimes it's ok to cheat

I'm currently sitting on a bus from Lima to Cuzco. It's a 21 hour ride & I'm not thrilled to be on the bus, but I feel it was the right decision.

It started on the 3rd day of the Huayhuash trek. I stopped for a regular toilet break & got the shock of my life.

Arghhhh it was dark RED. I'm not talking a touch of brown or a drop of blood, I'm talking like you cut your arm blood & it hurt like hell.

Uh oh never had this before. I feel fine hmmmm. In my mind "Ok don't panic you only have a few more days on the Huayhuash I'm sure it will clear up".

Hiking the HH you have no option once you are out there. It's a loop so u either turn back or keep going. Makes life pretty simple really.

I tried not to think about it too much but the need to pee every 15minutes made me think about it. The good thing is the trail just seems to get better everyday.

I set up camp had a chat with the others before one final toilet break & tucking myself as deep as I could in my sleeping bag.

I had a pretty bad nights sleep. It was cold as usual with the inside & out of the tent covered in ice when I got up. My mind had started to wander & think about all the things that could be wrong with me. Lucky I didn't have google it would of said I was dying for sure.

I was relieved when my first pee was clear the next morning. It still hurt like crazy but it was clear. Things are looking up. Nope second pee ended that theory. Oh well keep going not much else to do.

So on the 3rd day I finished the trail & jumped on a small bus back to my bike in Chiquian. I was thinking perhaps I would stay there the night & head to Huaraz in the morning.

Once I got to the hotel where my bike was I went to the toilet. Nope it's as bad as ever I'm getting on the bus to Huaraz. I think I need to see a dr.

A 3hr bus ride to Huaraz was a lot nicer than 2 days cycling hahaha all for the grand total of $3.50. I got off the bus & went straight to the hospital.

Holy shit this has to be one of the worst hospitals i have ever seen. It was horrific. There was a guy getting surgery & people kept opening the door to look in.

Half the windows were smashed. They had security at the front door. The tiles were broken & it seemed pretty dirty. Oh well

The queue for the dr was huge. Of course I waited almost an hour to be told I need to pay first. So off to the cashier, at least that was only a 10-15 min wait.

I paid my $5 then back to the back of the queue. After another 15min the dr spotted me waiting & waved me through. Onto the scales, blood pressure test then to explain my situation in Spanish.

Nobody spoke English. I was explaining in my best Spanish when a girl who was in with her boyfriend asked if I needed help. She was Argentinian & spoke great English thank god.

She said the dr understood & was going to give me an injection & antibiotics. But first to the pharmacy. Again I queued in the wrong side to be told I needed to go back inside to pay first.

$2 landed me Tramadol, 2 injections & 21 antibiotic tablets wooo that's cheap. I got my injection & was referred for blood tests & an X-ray.

I checked into the hostel again but this time I got myself a dorm room. I needed a bed. I went out for pizza with another cycle tourist & continued to need to pee every 5 minutes.

The next morning I went & did the blood tests. I then made an appointment for the X-Ray. I went to do that in the afternoon & after an hours wait was told by the dr I needed to see a urologist first.

I went to the hospital but the urologist was not there. I was then sent down the road to his practice. I will spare the details but I had a Full examination not something I expected at 34.

He then referred me onto another hospital for an MRI. Shit was getting expensive urghhhh. I went to another medical centre that had all of its windows intact so that was nice.

They did a blood test first & told me to go back the next day. I was still peeing a lot of blood & nobody had any answers yet. I was definitely starting to get worried.

I went back the next day was told that blood test was fine & I needed to do the MRI $190 :/ I did the test & was told to come back Monday afternoon.

At this stage it had been 6 days. Still no closer to an answer & still feeling fine apart from the blood.

I tried to relax as much as I could on Sunday even had a couple of beers. I went back Monday at 1:30 was told to go back at 4 I went back at 4 & was told to go back at 6:30, I was getting so frustrated.

I went back at 6:30 they handed them over said nothing except I need to see a dr. Urghhhh So I went to the bus station & booked a night bus to Lima. Hoping at least the dr might speak English.

I overnighted to Lima & went to my wonderful friends Olivier & Sarah's place. I then went to the dr paid another $30 to see a specialist.

He gave me the all clear & suspects a kidney infection. Oh thank god. This was also the first day I peed clear & the pain was almost gone.

I then spent the next day with Olivier & Sarah eating some very nice Ceviche & just hanging out. I booked a bus ticket to Cusco so I could be here when my friend Deb arrives.

I also felt it was a wise decision since I had taken 10 days worth of antibiotics. So that brings me here on a 21hr bus to Cusco which was going really well until the driver missed the hairpin turn & crashed over the railing.

We came to a nice stop about 3mtr from the edge of a 1000mtr drop. Lucky he was not going 10-15k faster or I would be typing this from a hospital bed or possibly worse.

After waiting on the road for 5 hours we finally got picked up by a collectivo then dropped at a small town to catch another collectivo to a bigger town.

We then waited 3.5 hours for another bus. We finally arrived in Cusco at 9:15pm instead of 11am. Lucky for me they reimbursed 3/4 of the fare which only took another hour to sort out.

I rode my bike the 3k into the city & went to 8 hostels all full. So I rode back out to the bus station & tried 3 more before finally finding one just before 11:30pm haha

What a mission. I finally started having a kidney infection symptom the morning before the bus. My lower back has been killing me. So that's a positive sign it was a correct diagnosis / guess

It's all part of the trip really Or as "reality " tv would say " journey "

So keep on living people :))